Bill Morlin

A federal judge in Spokane says he will hold an evidentiary hearing to determine whether a former Bureau of Indian Affairs special agent meets the legal definition of being an Indian. Senior U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush, in an order issued last week, said he must decide if Duane Garvais is an Indian before ruling whether the Spokane Tribe of Indians has jurisdiction to proceed with criminal charges against the ex-BIA agent.

An Aryan Nations member awaiting trial on hate-crime charges in Kootenai County is in jail in southwestern Washington, accused of shooting at a police officer during a standoff. Zachary Loren Beck, who unsuccessfully ran for the Hayden City Council last fall, was arrested Friday in Longview, Wash., after a brief standoff with police at a residence, Acting Police Chief Don Barnd said Monday.

Six days after being sentenced for bringing a handgun to Lewis and Clark High School, 16-year-old Sean Fitzpatrick apparently attempted suicide Wednesday evening at his family's home near Freeman. The teenager, who is on home detention as part of his sentence, swallowed a handful of Ibuprofen pills before being rushed to medical treatment by his parents, said Carl Hueber, the family's attorney.

A Spokane River rafting trip for a dozen Eastern Washington University students turned out Monday to be something far less than the "white-water experience" they had been promised. The students in professor Paul Green's white-water rafting course loaded into two rafts about 500 yards upriver from the Spokane Wastewater Treatment Plant just minutes before a 2-million-gallon sewage digester tank ruptured.